The Ranker
by SnowMelts
Summary: As Virtual Reality is on the spread, the government has decided to intervene and implement a VR Schooling System. Our hero is incredibly smart yet incredibly unmotivated. As a result he is quite average... on paper. Not in the virtual world though. As the government places a restriction on game time according to scholastic merits, he must re-evaluate his priorities.
1. Chapter 1: Shiny Silver Capsules

**The Ranker**

As Virtual Reality is on the spread, the government has decided to intervene and implement a Virtual Reality Schooling System. Our hero is incredibly smart yet incredibly unmotivated. As a result he is quite average... on paper. In the virtual world though, things are completely different. The variety of game options are able to keep our protagonist interested enough to apply himself. As the government places a restriction on game time according to scholastic merits, he must re-evaluate his priorities. In this world, ranks matter above all else. With only two school years left, there is not much time for him to fix his academic rank before jobs are assigned.

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><p><span>Chapter 1:<span> Shiny Silver Capsules

"Alright students. It seems that things are going to go down a little differently this year. 'Differently' being the key word. 'Little' being the _biggest _understatement in the _history _of understatements." Mr. Ferguson, the homeroom teacher, announced in his usual melodrama.

"It seems there will no longer be a school as you know it. In fact, your grade won't even require school attendance with the exception of your sports requirement. Instead of educated, trained and real teachers like _me_, you will now be referring to a _gaming system_ for your education."

Overly dramatic mannerisms interceded by sorrowful sighs of dejection where spewing out of Mr. Ferguson as he told his obvious tale of woe.

"So then, my last task as your teacher is to announce the following."

Mr. Ferguson prepared himself. His face looked like he was about to tell them they would all die of terminal cancer.

"Each of you is going to be given a capsule which will be installed in your home. This process should have already happened, and if not, will have happened by the time you get home."

There was the momentary dead silence of the baffled before he continued.

"For those of you who do not know what a capsule is. It is a virtual console, previously referred to as a gaming console, which allows you to enter a virtual world. For those of you who do not know what a virtual world is…"

A brief look around the classroom before he concluded.

"Yes. Okay. I don't need to cover that one."

Mr. Ferguson closed his holoscreen before he continued.

He took a deep breath before he went off-script and said.

"Basically I am here to tell you to go home and wait for your capsule."

The reality of the situation was starting to sink in and students were becoming restless with the prospect of having a capsule at their disposal at all times.

"However."

He cut off the budding commotion.

"Your game-time will depend on your academic merit. You are being issued a capsule as a means to your education, not your entertainment. That your entertainment must be taken into consideration when evaluating learning methods just shows how low our society has fallen."

This got the students' attention once more.

"You will be given a syllabus which you must complete in order to gain your final academic rank. Each assignment will offer credits which can be reimbursed in the form of game-time. The better you do, the more credits you will receive."

One of the usual 'overly involved' students raised her hand.

The teacher gave another melodramatic sigh and said in a resigned voice, "_Yes Malory? What can I do for you on this fine, fine day?_" Sarcasm was dripping off his words. He was annoyed he had to put up with the girl on this day of all days.

"How does the credit system work?" Malory questioned, ignoring his tone of voice. She was used to people speaking to her that way.

"Pretty straightforward actually. You do work. You get credits for that work."

"I see. If we have a capsule at home. Does that mean we don't have to come to school anymore?"

Mr. Ferguson gave Malory an annoyed look that he wouldn't have dared the previous week before continuing.

"As I have already said, no. Most of your subjects, such as English, Math… _Biology_… will be covered with your capsules. Physical Education however, will have to be covered in school."

He said aloud before muttering to himself.

-"I shouldn't have laughed at the PE teacher… It seems he's the only one _not_ losing his job around here… Now it's _me_ who is going to be the butt of all jokes..."

"I understand that most of us will excel with this new system... _however_."

Malory shot a boy in the corner a malicious look.

"What's to stop _some_ of us from only gaming?"

The boy however, was too preoccupied with a spot on the ceiling to care. There was a stain, with a dubious shape that was calling all of his attention.

Mr. Ferguson held back an eyeroll and said.

"Well, I heard that the government has placed restrictions on all games. Until you have received your final academic rank, you can only play when you have accumulated enough credits."

There was another agitated stir in the classroom.

"What do you mean?"

Even dedicated-stellar-brown-noser Malory showed signs of distress.

-"As I said _earlier_. Your game-time will depend on your academic merit."

"You can't be serious!?" Malory was indignant.

"Yes. I am serious. Do you think _I_ like it? I'll be out of a job because of it!"

Mr. Ferguson couldn't help but take the chance to expressing his own grief on the situation.

"As I understand it, each assignment has a set number of available credits. These credits will be granted in accordance to your individual performances. So the better you do… The more time you get to play... And the more you study… The more you can play."

A cacophony of voices broke out simultaneously as soon as Mr. Ferguson finished his explanation.

"But that's!"

"What!?"

"I don't believe it!"

"They can't just throw that on us like that!"

It wasn't surprising that the students were indignant. Every single one of them played a virtual reality game called Royal Road (even -pants), anything that got in the way of their game-time was akin to evil. Ever since the inception of Royal Road, everything other than school and the strictly necessary took place in the virtual world.

If people wanted to meet each other, they did it in game. If people wanted to date, they did it online. If people wanted to sleep… okay, technology hadn't gotten that far... _yet_, but 'virtually' everything else, even shopping, was done… well… _virtually_ these days.

So, although there were many reasons that the students could be protesting the new system, for example… invasion of privacy, free-will or even democracy, the actual reason that there was so much protest was because the students could already tell their game time was going to be seriously reduced.

While the racket broke out, we unfortunately sidelined our protagonist. As you might have guessed… yeah, never mind, you probably didn't. Well. Anyway, he is the ceiling-gazer who goes by Cur and while everyone else in the room was shouting in agitation, he sat calmly, hands-in-pocket, and continued to gaze at the same spot on the ceiling.

It's not that Cur didn't care. It's just that he didn't feel there was anything he could do about it. When it came to the government, he knew they had the final word. He knew from experience that protest never helped and eventually died out as people began to see things the government's way. Cur was sure the same was going to happen in this situation, so he saw no reason to get worked up about it.

Plus, getting worked up about something… requires effort.

Cur never saw any reason to apply himself in anything he wasn't interested. In fact, the only thing he did apply himself in consistently was Royal Road. This aspect of his personality was of course the thing that drove our little Miss Goody Two Shoes Crazy, but more on that later.

Cur's attitude towards school was at _best,_ lax. A very rare attitude in a society ruled by ranks. Everyone knew that having a good academic rank basically settled you for life, which is why _most_ students tried so hard.

In order to explain the ranking system, here's a little flashback. After the unification of all the world's governments (a history lesson for another date), the big question was how to set up a governing system that was both equal and fair… for everyone. After much debate, the people came to a unanimous decision to create a meritocracy, and in this way the system of ranks was born. People could now no longer blame anyone else other than themselves for their shortcomings.

Ranks are flexible and change on a daily basis as new information is computed into the ranks. Each person has many ways of defining and identifying themselves in the system as there is a rank for everything. There are individual ranks which are computed based on a single person's scores, such as the aforementioned academic rank, there are ranks for athletics, popularity, artistry, common sense, aesthetic beauty, singing, you name it, there is a rank for it. Many of the ranks even have sub-ranks, the knowledge rank for example has the most sub-ranks such as the indigenous cultures of Old Australia knowledge rank. This type of ranks allow people to immediately know who the best source of knowledge for any given thing is. It also allows people with common interests to come together and discuss a thing they love.

Every rank is determined differently according to its nature. Many ranks are measured in standardized tests which citizens are _required_ to take periodically, and _encouraged _to take as frequently as they want. Other ranks depend on the opinion of others and is thus affected by polls which people participate in. The aesthetic beauty rank for example is determined when citizens get assigned ten random people which they rank from 1-10 in terms of beauty. The average of the whole world is taken to create these ranks. Being that there is also a rank for how many polls a person participates in (a rank that gives other ranks a slight boost), the government has no shortage in people's opinions about other people.

The other type of rank that exists is the group rank, which exists in multiple forms. The most prevalent of which is the family rank. It totals all household member's ranks and divides them by the number of members, giving a per capita glimpse of the family. Other important group ranks are the ones for schools, grades, particular classes, teams, orchestras, clubs, you name it.

Ranks weren't just informational though, they also influenced an incredible amount of things. Good academic ranks led to high paying jobs, good singing ranks led to successful music careers, good popularity ranks led to good political careers, good aesthetic ranks led to… let's face it… _any _career.

Going by Cur's intrinsic intelligence one would have expected him to be amongst the highest in the academic ranks… but he wasn't. At the moment he was ranked at 28,737,918 out of the 60,419,003 students in his Grade Level, placing him a little below the average. He didn't really care though.

He got bored easily and often didn't even bother to complete his tests. Cur figured he could fix his rank later if the mood ever struck him, as long as he got _a_ final academic rank it would all be fine.

No one else dared to think like this, changing ranks was much harder than getting ranked well in the first place. In fact, most of the other students had long cracked down on their studies. His class was in its tenth year of schooling, leaving only two more before the final rank would be assigned. After _that _rank was given… it would be extremely difficult to change it.

Immediately after Grade Level 12 all of the recently graduated students would be separated into four separate groups. These groups were decided in terms of ranks. The top 10% would go into a university of their choice to study something of their liking. Mostly, these individuals became doctors, lawyers or high-powered business men.

The next 50% would be placed into a university of the government's choice according to aptitude tests that were performed regularly. Those students would have no say in the matter. In fact, the lower you rank, the fewer choices you have.

The following 30% would be placed in either menial government jobs, community colleges or particular career courses. They were expected to start contributing to the workforce a year after graduation while the top 50% on the other hand would have another 5 years of study before they entered the labor force.

Finally, the last 10% were given the unwanted but necessary manual labor jobs. They often involved trash disposal, sewer treatment, factory work and environmental care. Although ranks were not set in stone, it was very hard to recover from the graduation assignment. If you ever wished to rise from factory work, you would have to pursue a community college degree or another form of specialized training on your free time while still managing your designated job. All of this while simultaneously trying to raise ranks that you must have let fall too low to begin with.

So if you screwed up your graduation ranking… _well_… you were screwed for life.

Cur didn't really care. You might call it overconfidence, or laziness, or you might call it self-deception. He figured he could fix his rank at the very end of his student career, right before it mattered. Either way, he continued to sit there with vacant eyes while the classroom raged on.

Malory was the only one who left the horde to give Cur a look of contempt. She was furious with him. Always had been, always _would_ be. She considered him her archrival… even if he didn't know/care. She had the best sectional and regional ranks in academics and was even in the top 1000 (currently 982) of the global Grade Level 10 ranks. Cur on the other hand... _wasn't._ His rank fluctuated somewhere from the bottom third to the middle and back.

_She hated him._

While she wholeheartedly studied for each rank-test, he would merely graze by. Sometimes he would get full marks (when a subject interested him and the mood struck him), while at other times he would get 0 marks (when he couldn't be bothered).

_She hated him._

It was nigh on impossible to get full marks and she herself had only managed it a handful of times. The tests were purposefully constructed to be ridiculously difficult. The reason was that if thousands were constantly able to get full marks… how would those higher ranks be distinguished one from another?

_She hated him._

While she labored away to increase her national rank by even one, he sailed by and invested effort only when the mood struck him. In _her_ mind she had never beaten him even when she got 98 and he got a 0. Every time he _bothered _to participate his grade had been higher than hers. There had been one time when she had finally managed to get a full mark, and since Cur had also participated… she thought she would _finally_ be able to at least manage a tie… he got a 102. (He had found a mistake in the test.)

_She hated him._

Malory was the only one who knew about the discrepancies in Cur's grades. They were supposed to be confidential and the only public knowledge was the general rank itself which was computed with the average of all test scores. _How_ a person got that rank was private. Not even the teachers knew of Cur's test scores since fingerprints served as signatures. That is also why he was never bothered or asked about his oscillating grades. They could not pester what they didn't know.

Malory however, knew. And it irritated her to no end. She wasn't _supposed _to know but her father was a very high ranked government employee who had access to personal files. In case you haven't noticed yet, Malory is an extremely competitive and nosey individual and so she decided to snoop around in the personal files of her classmates one night. She paid particular attention to Cur's file; he had annoyed her from the beginning with his laissez-faire attitude. His academic results stumped her and ignited an eternal fire of hate within her.

_She hated him._

Her father never knew that Malory would check his files after every rank-test just to find out how Cur had done. With time her obsession became a compulsion. In class, her gaze was constantly going back to him, at home she would study until her parents fell asleep. Then she would immediately log onto her dad's account to go over Cur's files… _again_.

She could only access them on his computer though. It was one thing to go unnoticed while browsing. Printing it would be a completely different ballgame. Over time she had memorized all there was to know about him. She knew his height, eye color, weight, school rankings ranging from kindergarten to elementary school to high school, family rankings, social rankings, aptitude test scores… it was scary. Granted, the government knowing and keeping track of all of these things in the first place might be even scarier.

When she knew his files better than her own, she moved on to his family's. She had become a Cur-fanatic.

(The moral of the story is: Parents… don't use your daughter's birthdays as your password.)

_She hated him._

Cur, on the other hand … couldn't care less.

He was wondering about the implications of what the teacher had said. If he understood it correctly, he would have to invest into his studies if he wanted to play. He was not particularly happy about that prospect. Not that he was worried about his performance abilities… he was just annoyed that, by the looks of it, he wouldn't be able to play as he pleased anymore.

_That _was quite vexing. The Virtual Reality of Royal Road had been the only thing that had held his interest long-term. There were too many facets and nuances for him to get bored like he usually did. As a result he was doing extremely well in the, apparently, only unranked activity that was gaming. _Had _there been a rank, he would probably have come in the top ten... at least. Unfortunately though, there was no such rank and he continued to be a low-to-middle ranker in all other things… that _were_ ranked.

Cur was still considering the words the teachers had said before the crazy had broken out when -

"SIIILLEEEENCCEEEE. JUST SHUT THE -" Mr. Ferguson boomed.

And silence, that had been hiding in the corner, usurped the throne and reigned.

Thankfully he caught himself before _finishing _his outburst. He briefly closed his eyes and smoothed out his clothing in a habitualistic fashion.

"Alright _kids_…" He began in a calm and'composed voice… he was obviously pretending that the zoo-circus-carnival of students a few seconds ago hadn't taken place.

Malory raised her hand and Mr. Ferguson pointedly looked at every other part of the room.

"It seems that this is quite a difficult concept for you to grasp on such short notice. Fear not. The capsules are supposed to be outfitted with a self-explanatory tutorial and initiation through your registration."

He looked around the room with a curt little smile on his face before he continued.

"The ministry of education has given each student a 24 hours to complete this registration. It is _mandatory _for every single one of you. If you have not completed your registration within that amount of time, your family's rank will go down by 10 for every further minute you take to register."

He gave the, now seated, students an examining glance before he added.

"_Well_. I do not think I have anymore to add… After all I am now a _superfluous _teacher… Are there anymore questions before I let you meet your new school system and _my_ replacement..."

He gave the class one final look.

"Alright. You may go."

He waved his hand in what looked like a tango gesture. The students understood it for what it was, and took their leave.

Mr. Ferguson turned to his desk while the students raced each other to the door.

Malory's raised hand was promptly ignored.


	2. Chapter 2: The MOSS

A/N: Bold Font = Time for you to imagine this writing is in a table.

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><p><span>Chapter 2:<span> The MOSS

Cur took his sweet time getting home, he was in no rush to be chained by the new school system. He went to the park and fed the ducks for a while, then he decided to give his grandmother a visit and eventually ended up at his cousin's house.

They were the same age so he figured they could talk about the system. His cousin was one of the only people Cur could stand being around… sometimes. (He was also one of the only people who could stand _him._ Ah… the perils of superiority.) Although Cur often thought of himself as smarter than Beri, which he probably was, this was not reflected in their ranks. While Cur was only ranked 38,737,918, Beri was usually ranked somewhere around the ten thousands. If Cur would bother to check the rank registries he would see that Beri had actually risen, significantly, in ranks recently. He was currently ranked at 8,142.

Cur didn't care though and when he arrived at Beri's house, his cousin's parents informed Cur that Beri was busy registering for the MOSS.

"The _what_?"

"The Virtual Reality Merit Oriented Schooling System… but VRMOSS is quite a mouthful so it's been shortened to MOSS… Where have you been that you haven't heard this already? It's all over the news!" Beri's mother replied.

"I've been... busy."

"I see, so you've already finished MOSSing?"

She didn't give him the time to answer.

"I was wondering what you were doing here… I figured you would be at home registering your own account. Beri has been at it for hours and he _still _hasn't finished…"

She looked behind her at the stairs that led to Beri's room.

"You always _were_ a smart one though… A shame you don't apply yourself more… Well. No matter. Come in. Come in."

His aunt waved him in.

"Beri should be done any minute now."

Cur didn't correct her misunderstanding of his "MOSSing" and walked the familiar path to Beri's room. He saw a, now occupied, new capsule placed by Beri's old one. After a few minutes of waiting he was growing anxious. He didn't like not having anything to do. A couple of thumb-twiddles later he was about to head home and face the MOSS before his eyes landed on Beri's old capsule again.

'I might as well give it a last go before the school system applies. They said 24 hours… I bet I can still access Royal Road one last time before then…'

He had logged in briefly before school, so he knew that the MOSS rules were not activated as of yet… probably. Cur got into Beri's old capsule and logged in.

Cur was busy fighting a couple of high-level vampires when he received the sudden notification.

* * *

><p><strong>You have received an External Message request.<strong>

* * *

><p>He saw that the message was from Beri. Cur thought about not replying, but then he remembered who's capsule he was in.<p>

"What is it? I'm kind of busy here…"

"Dude. Come on! You've been in there for _hours_ and my mom is calling us to dinner… So get your ass out of there and come down for supper…"

"Alright. Alright."

Thankfully he was almost done and executed a couple of well-aimed and critical hits before he beat the offending vampires and logged out.

By the time he logged out, Beri's room was empty so he headed down the stairs to join his Aunt and Uncle for dinner.

"Sorry I took so long to come down Auntie May." He gave her his best guilty-innocent look. It always worked on women… Blame the mother-hen instinct. "And thank you so much for having me over for dinner!"

He sat down gratefully and began eating. It was a common occurrence, mostly because his Aunt had a much higher cooking rank than his mother… rightfully so. The dinner discussion was centered mainly around MOSS, Beri was describing his experience while Cur was distracted by his food.

Beri knew not to disturb Cur when it came to food, so when Cur _finally_ put his fork down to help himself to thirds, he asked.

"So, which one did you choose?"

"What do you mean?"

"For MOSS! Which one did you choose?"

"Choose which what?"

"The platform obviously! What else would I be asking?! I know what race you will choose… you are pretty predictable on that front… So!?"

"Ohh… _That._ I haven't yet."

"What do you… Are you _serious_!? What are you doing!? You should go register immediately!"

Cur was taken aback by his cousin's tone.

"I will. Calm down. Calm down. I've just been... busy."

"Cur! You don't understand. The registration is hell! It took me _forever _to get through it! I haven't even had the time to check out my platform yet. Granted… I've only had the time to earn a couple dozen credits…"

Seeing that Cur was quickly losing interest, Beri switched gears.

"Look. It's harder than you'd think. I will tell you that much. Which is _why_ you should be at _home..._ _registering_ instead of here... _freeloading_."

"Alright. Alright. Calm down. I'm going. I'm going. Jeeeshh."

Sometimes Beri got on his nerves. He wasn't in the mood to stay and talk about MOSS or, in his case, the lack thereof, so he left. Cur stopped by the park again and fed the ducks some of the bread he had pilfered at his aunt's house. He really liked those ducks.

He stayed for a while, but eventually he decided it was time to go home. By now, it was long dark and he followed the streetlights home. When he reached his door, it was locked so he rang the doorbell. His father had an obsession with locking things and Cur was too lazy to look for the keys in his backpack.

The door swung open almost immediately, revealing his little brother. When he saw Cur, a scowl met his forehead.

"Oh… It's _you_…" He said dismissively and walked away.

"... Who else would I be? Jesus?"

Cur didn't really expect a reply, their relationship could be categorized as… distant. Ramz was quite a petulant little brother and Cur mostly ignored him and his antics. Cur figured if he gave Tui, Ramz's twin, attention he could balance the scales of "good sibling". So he treated Ramz as a sort of distant side-kick and Ramz… well… We would need much more than an amateur's writing to explain the intricacies of Ramz. So we shall leave it for now.

Cur watched as Ramz headed towards the living room and automatically left for his own room. There, he was momentarily caught off guard when he saw a new capsule in place of his old one. Cur experienced a pang of alarm before he reasoned his old capsule's absence. His room was smaller than Beri's since Beri's family's ranking was higher than Cur's.

Family rankings determined the house size, neighborhood and child allowance of the family. There were 6 broad family ranks. They went from Purple, Yellow, Red, Brown, Green to Blue, highest to lowest.

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><p><strong>Family Ranks | Percentage of Population | Number of Citizens<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Purple | 2% | 100,08,439<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Yellow | 8% | 400,273,754<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Red | 15% | 750,513,290<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Brown | 20% | 1,000,684,386<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Green | 25% | 1,250,855,486<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Blue | 30% | 1,501,026,579<strong>

* * *

><p>Cur's family was ranked Green, Beri's on the other hand was ranked Red. While Cur's house was small with no front yard, Beri's house was in a nice neighborhood, next to the Park and the ducks, had a big lawn and a parking garage. The red rank also allowed his family to have three kids if they so chose even though they only had Beri.<p>

A Green rank was also only allowed two children. The fact that Ramz and Tui were twins could not be helped but it also caused a lot of discontent among other Green rankers who wanted more than two kids. Population control was a big issue and the government was proud that the population was shrinking, currently at 5,003,421,934 citizens. They wanted to get under the 5 billion mark in the next 5 years at the most and this required constant vigilance.

However, government control is neither here nor there when explaining the lack of space in Cur's room. With the tiny size, it was no surprise then that Cur's old capsule was removed. There simply wasn't room for the two of them. Cur figured the second one would soon become redundant anyway so he wasn't disturbed.

'I can only use one capsule at a time anyhow.'

Cur lay down on his bed and pulled out the book he had been reading recently, titled _Are we alone?_ It mostly talked about the likelihood of extraterrestrial life and the reasoning behind it. It was quite fascinating. Cur's interests were quite random and varied. He had started out with the principle of relativity last week and had somehow moved onto astronomy and then aliens. He thought the study of conspiracy theories was particularly amusing.

A couple of hours later, Cur finished the book and laid it down. He glanced at the clock which showed, 00:18 a.m. He figured his family would be asleep by now, so he turned off his light and went to sleep as well.

His brand new capsule lay there, shiny, brand new, and untouched.

Cur's alarm clock woke him at his usual 5:30 a.m. He groaned, turned over and tried to 'pillow' the sound away. It didn't work. He knew he hadn't gotten enough sleep since he had stayed up to finish that book but he wasn't about to lose Royal Road gaming time. He begrudgingly got up.

He went into the bathroom, brushed his teeth, took a quick shower and returned to his room with a yawn. The shower usually wiped all his sleepiness away, but _usually_ he had a bit more sleep in him. Wiping his eyes with the back of his hand a second time, he faced his capsule.

He paused in confusion. It was new.

"Oh yah… _MOSS_."

He considered it for a moment… and then went back to sleep. Cur was used to getting up early to play Royal Road but he saw no reason to start a mandatory schooling system before he absolutely _had_ to.

A couple of hours later his mother was screaming in his ear.

"GET UP!"

Cur didn't move.

"I SAAAID… GET UP! NOW! WHAT TIME DO YOU THINK IT IS!?"

When his mother received no verbal, visible or detectable human reply from him, she began a rant.

"This is the _fourth_ time I have come in here. I don't have time to be getting you up like this anymore. Try acting your age sometimes. You are already sixteen. It's time for you to grow up and start assuming some responsibility for your actions. So get up. I don't want to have to repeat myself… _again_. If I come in here _again_ and you are still in bed… Well. You _really_ don't want to know. So move it!"

Cur heard her stomping out of his room and down the stairs. He laid there for another half a minute or so debating whether his mother's wrath was worth a couple more luxurious minutes of sleep. He heard a faint banging of pans in the kitchen.

"... _Not._"

He sat up and stretched his arms over his head. He did that thing where you rock your body forward as if you're about to get up… and then you don't. He did it a couple of times. Then… he got up. He smelled bacon.

Running down the stairs two steps at a time he jumped into his seat at the counter. His mother slowly turned around, eyed him up and down and returned her attention to the stove.

"Finally decide to join the living have we?" His mother said in a mocking and annoyed voice.

"..."

Cur had learned, through a lot of trial-and-error, that it was best not to comment until her mood had returned to… 'stable'. Tui and Ramz were equally silent as they sat and ate their breakfast with the utmost concentration. Einstein would be proud.

LD sighed dramatically with the sole purpose of calling her kids attention to herself, particularly Cur. (LD was his mother's name. It was short for her birth name Lemon Desdemona… which LD hated.)

LD finally turned around and gave Cur a meaningful look. You know the one… that look mothers give. Cur looked right back at her. He knew his mother would see it as a sign of weakness if he looked away first.

LD kept the stare up for a while longer, before she resigned in the name of expedience.

"Alright. Just don't do that again. I don't want to have to keep chasing you like that. I expect you to look after yourself. I just don't have the _time_ to do it for you."

His mother really _was_ a busy person. It's what happens when a person feels responsible for everyone and everything. This might explain why she had married Cur's father, who was of a significantly lower rank than her. Normally such things were not done. This might also explain why she took on a job as a nurse at the pediatric wing at a local hospital. While her academic rank could have easily allowed her to become a doctor, she had always wanted to be a nurse, "I want to actually help them. Doctors just shout orders and walk away."

LD was a rarity in her society, rank mattered little to her.

She usually came off as quite a stubborn and hard individual, but inside she was one of the most caring people you could ever hope to find. She was a great mother and tried to make as much time for her children as she could. In the end though, she was always in a hurry and ended up not being able to measure up to her own standards.

"Yes Mom, I'm sorry." Cur replied and he really was… in _that_ moment. It was just hard to feel sorry at other times, like when he was so tired and the sheets used their siren powers entrancing him back to sleep. If you looked at it factually… you could even say he was the _victim _of the whole situation.

His mother gave him an appraising look. Satisfied with his apologetic attitude she changed the topic.

"Well then. Tell me about MOSS. How did the registration go? I heard on the news just now that some kids spent over twenty hours working on it… there are even some that haven't even _finished_ yet. They are cutting it quite close don't you think? They only have what?"

She gave the holoscreen she had projected across the kitchen a quick look.

"A little under two hours left?"

The screen was broadcasting images of haggard looking kids as they stumbled out of their shining new capsules. They looked absolutely drained.

Cur felt a tiny pang of apprehension for the first time. He quickly stifled it though and tried to convince himself he would be fine… he always _was..._ when he applied himself. Cur was always comforted by the thought that he _could_ have done well if he had bothered to, and so he turned to the news.

One of Cur's mottos was that half of the world's problems solve themselves and the other half have no solution… so why bother worrying?

His mother raised the volume a little so the reporter's voice could be heard.

"... has been monumental. No one expected MOSS to have such an impact on some of the students. It has taken quite a mental toll on children… as well as their families. On to you Max."

The image left the reporter who had been interviewing some parents and went back to the main newsroom where Max, the famous news broadcaster, sat. He was one of the most charismatic men in the media industry and was probably the most well-known individual of the entire country.

"Thank you Alice."

He promptly directed his gaze at the viewer (i.e. the camera).

"As we all know MOSS has become the most talked about phenomenon of the last twenty four hours. Oh! Ha. I lie... _Twenty two _hours."

Okay... Sometimes his jokes were shit, but the man was loved… so lets overlook that for now.

"There are many worries that rose up concerning MOSS's effects on rankings and the government has asked us to share this information with you."

Max opened a holoscreen and read.

"Dear Citizens. We are trying to minimize the damage of this conversion period and thank everyone for their understanding. Rankings shall not be affected, even if your child has placed in a lower grade level than he was in previously. We realize that the stress of this unannounced change might have shocked and influenced your children and their performances."

Max swiped at his holoscreen.

"VRMOSS was not created as a way to change your rankings, it was merely designed to make use of the hours our children will unavoidably spend in the virtual world. We also believe that rankings will be much more systematized and correct with this new system. Though we have always strived for a standardized educational system, it was hard to implement with different schools and environments. With VRMOSS we will finally be able to offer equal chances to everyone. We are after all a society that values equality and the worth of merit above all else. ~May the odds be in everyone's favor.~"

Max finished closed his holoscreen, before he directed his attention to the camera once more.

"It seems the government has decided to assuage one of the big worries we were experiencing yesterday. So know that if your child went from grade 8 in real life to grade 7 in MOSS, his or her rankings will not be affected. Isn't that a relief to know?"

A graph appeared behind Max, and he swiveled to face a different camera.

"It seems that 99% of all students have completed registration. Fortunately this means that we will not be experiencing the drastic rank shifts that have been the talk of the night. While a child's level of performance will not influence rankings, the lack of participation will."

The graph on display was displaced by another.

"The government has also released a pertinent piece of information. Apparently there are still eleven children that have not began the application process, eight of which have been explained due to illness or other excused absences. The government urges the three children without excuses to basically "_get on with it._"

Max chuckled at his idea of a joke.

"After all, the penalties are applied until the registration is completed."

Max shifted his attention to a different camera, thus basically ending the topic before he moved on to a new one.

"As for the available platforms..."

Cur dropped the fork he had been using to shovel eggs into his mouth. He had been barely paying attention, but he was constantly aware of his surroundings and couldn't help but follow what was happening. The implications immediately dawned on him.

Cur had been putting MOSS off because, frankly, he wasn't interested… but now it seemed like his lack of interest was about to blow up in his face. He had thought that the penalty could be avoided as long as he logged on before the deadline was over…. apparently, that was _not _the case.

'That stupid, stupid, _stupid_ Fergustard! It's his fault for not explaining it right!'

Cold sweat began running down his back. Cur was not used to the feeling of anxiety, and his muscles were all clamped up. He couldn't run up the stairs like he wanted to though. His mother would skin him alive if she ever found out that he still hadn't registered. Cur decided to sit and wait until his mother left for work.

LD soon took the kids out to the bus stop. Children below the age of fourteen were required to be outfitted with their capsule at their schools so they could be supervised. Cur sat and waited, gripping his fork, until LD came back inside.

She swiftly but the dishes away, cleaned the counter and looked at Cur. She gave him a worried look. Cur was immediately afraid his mother had found out.

"Are you okay honey?"

"Y-Yes… I'm totally fine! … W-Why do you ask?"

He stuttered anxiously.

"Well… I've never seen you leave food on your plate before!" She said jokingly.

"Hah…" He attempted a laugh. "No. No I'm just still full from Auntie May's dinner from last night! It was great…"

This comment shut his mother up and she buried her mother-hen instincts. She did not like to be reminded of how much better Auntie May's cooking was. LD had always been compared to her, so she just shrugged and put Cur's dishes in the dishwasher.

After efficiently turning the dishwasher on and gathering her things, she quickly grabbed her coat and headed for the door. She smiled when she looked back at Cur and added, "It seems so weird leaving you at home on a weekday. Be good and don't forget to MOSS!"

LD closed the door and headed for the bus stop. She wasn't really worried, she had never seen a kid as addicted to Virtual Reality Games as Cur… and she worked with quite a few sick children in the hospital.

'Maybe this will finally help him channel his energy to something productive. It's such a shame he doesn't do better in school. I know that if he applied himself he would do great...'

Meanwhile, Cur.

He waited for the door to close behind LD and immediately sprung into action.

"Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm so, so, so, so _dead_." He chanted as he leaped from his seat and ran full-speed up the stairs into his room and into his capsule.

He had 1 hour, 12 minutes and 8 seconds left until the late registration penalty would begin. The only solace he could find was in the fact that time went by four times as quickly in virtual reality he would really have 4 hours 48 minutes and 32 seconds.

Cur knew that his mother did not really care about the ranking so much, but he could absolutely _not_ be the reason they went down in ranks. Family ranks were near impossible to climb and while his mother might not care… his _father _definitely would.

* * *

><p><strong>Would you like to enter the Virtual Reality Merit Oriented Schooling System?<strong>

**Yes | No**

* * *

><p>AN: Anything in bold was supposed to be on a table. Unfortunately I do not know how to make tables work in fictionpress, if anyone knows... please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it, especially since my future chapters will have more and more of them.

Also. Criticism greatly appreciated :)


	3. Chapter 3: Karma

Chapter 3: Karma

"Welcome to the Virtual Reality Merit Oriented Schooling System. It is our goal as a government to achieve fairness in its entirety. With this innovative system we hope to…"

A beautiful sing-song and feminine voice lulled in languor.

"Skip." Cur commanded anxiously. He didn't have time for the grand speech.

"That command is not recognized for this segment of the registration. With this innovative system we hope to…"

Cur didn't try that command again… instead he decided to go with.

"Speed up."

The woman talked a little faster.

"Speed up to the max."

He added. The voice sped up even more and Cur listened as the woman went into depth about the programming decisions of this system, the merits and advantages… etc.

'_Basically. They are brainwashing us to be fond of MOSS… after all… if the kids like it the parents cannot say anything.'_

The feminine voice talked on and on and on. Even at what was probably four times the speed she had begun with, her narration took over two hours of virtual time. Or, one hour real time.

'_I don't have time for this! I've already wasted half of my time and all I've done is listen to this 'person' go on and on and on.'_

Finally the woman's voice began moving on to something else.

"Please confirm an in-depth body scan."

"Confirm."

Cur said without thought or hesitation.

He felt a wave of warmth go over his 'real' body. It was a strange experience for him since the capsule had always kept a homogenous environment so as not to disturb the senses in the Virtual World. Then he felt a prick on his hand.

Then he found out why.

"Your body mass, weight and height have been configured. Your health has been checked and there is no noticeable damage to any of your internal organs or bone marrow. The analysis of your skeletal structure has indicated that a growth spurt is imminent. Your blood sample also came out clean, showing no signs of substance abuse in the recent past. Your DNA results have confirmed your identity as Arcur Symphonius Manik."

The bad naming sense ran in the family.

Cur didn't stop to think about how the government had any record of his DNA. If he _had_, he might have thought of some privacy infringement issues.

"We are now ready to commence your registration."

'_Oh yeah? What have we been doing until now?'_

"However, first, there are a couple of things you should be aware of."

'_Oh _come _on! I don't have _time _for this!'_

"Skip."

"That command is not recognized for this segment of the registration. This system hinges on the equality of opportunity for all. Consequently this means that your VR character cannot look like you. The system relies on the Anonymity of all participants, especially since we do not want GMs to be influenced in any way by the identity of an individual. As a result your character cannot look like you, sound like you or have your name. Furthermore, all characters will be given the appearance of a twenty year old in order to prevent any age discrimination. ~May the odds be in everyone's favor.~"

'_I don't have _time _for this! Come on. Come on.'_

"You may now choose your avatar's name."

Cur blurted the first word that came to mind after that useless speech.

"Anonymous."

"You may now choose your avatar's appearance and race. However, in order to avoid discrimination in any form all avatars are of neutral sex. Please modify your appearance to your liking."

Usually, Cur would have spent a lot of time on his looks, but not today.

'_I don't have _time _for this!'_

"Random."

"Your avatar has been randomly generated. Are you…"

"Skip."

This time the command worked and his avatar disappeared without Cur ever having looked at it.

"Now that you have chosen your game avatar, it is time for you to be introduced to your syllabus. In order for you to be placed at your precise level of understanding we will now initiate the placement examination. Please answer every question to the most of your capabilities. Take your time and answer them as correctly as possible. If the questions are too hard for you to understand, feel free to skip them. We realize that this system needs some conversion leniency and thus no penalty will be applied to you if you experience a grade loss in VRMOSS. Our goal is to provide an equal education to all so that the opportunities will be equal to all. ~May the odds be in everyone's favor.~"

"Commence."

The first problem that Cur was given involved physics and unit conversions. He had never been interested in memorizing the conversions and did not want to spend time working them out so he quickly decided to skip it.

"Skip."

The next was a math problem. He solved it in a little less than a minute.

The next was an English passage he was meant to read and analyze. It was very familiar stuff, since the schooling system had long been standardized but Cur decided to skip it in the name of time preservation.

'_I don't have _time _for this!'_

Looking at his clock he saw that he had a little over an hour of game-time left. The various brainwash speeches, explanations, justifications and body scans had used up his time like no other… even at mach-4 speed. (I know mach-4 is four times the speed of sound… but I liked how it sounded… so shush.)

He made a decision.

When the next problem appeared he immediately said.

"Skip."

The next.

"Skip."

The next.

"Skip."

Cur figured that answering the questions would always take longer than just saying "skip". He figured that a lower grade or two wouldn't matter in the long-run and he could just catch up quickly with a bit of extra work. That way his family wouldn't suffer from his mistake.

He continuously skipped the questions before he could even look at them. The time was slowly counting down as Cur skipped questions as fast as he could. (He averaged at 1 question a second. In terms of speed he was ranked 1st.) He kept his eyes on the clock while he monotonously repeated, "Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip."

Cur didn't even realize when the questions became noticeably easier. All he cared about was the quickly elapsing time.

'_I don't have _time _for this!'_

"Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip."

Cur's clock was indicating that he had a little under ten minutes left. By now he was really worried and his heartbeat became erratic. Sweat was pouring down his face and body as he experienced the most anxious minutes of his life. Tears of frustration were pooling in his eyes and he could feel a pain in his head that came in time with his heart beat. Cur was sure he was about to be the first person to ever die from a heart attack while playing VR.

He could envision the headlines after his death:

* * *

><p><strong>MOSS Meets its First Victim<strong>

* * *

><p>Thankfully, when the clock showed that he had a little over eight minutes left. The lulling voice announced.<p>

"You have successfully completed your diagnostic test."

Cur was momentarily taken aback. Somehow he had expected the test to go on forever and had already resigned himself to failing to finish on time. The unexpected voice was also shocking in another sense though. Cur had just spent the last hour listening to himself repeat the word "Skip" over and over again. It is no surprise that he momentarily forgot the existence of the rest of the vocabulary.

"These are your results."

Numerous tables showing the questions he was asked and the answers he provided appeared before him. All but one were blank. There were also graphs that lacked any information, Cur gave a wry smile as he suspected they were supposed to contain _some _information.

Finally he breathed a sigh of relief.

He had made it.

He had actually made it.

His family wouldn't be penalized because _his _stupidity.

"At the moment you have zero credits. In order to earn credits you have to follow your syllabus and its assignments. The completion method is entirely up to you. If you wish to learn by self-study… you may, if you wish to learn from a tutor you can customize him or her to your liking, if you wish to look at some of our other interactive learning methods, please take a look at our selection."

A screen showed up in front of him showing many options such as Game Show, Answer or Die, Mother Knows Best, Hottie Lessons, etc. Before he could swipe the list to continue browsing, the voice continued.

"If you have any further questions, feel free to ask them of me and now, I would like to take this moment to congratulate you on successfully completing your registration."

After hours of talking, the voice had apparently finished.

'_No wonder they gave her such an attractive voice. I would have probably gone crazy with an annoying one.'_

Cur took a couple of minutes to peruse his results, he was a little amused now that it was all over. When he saw the last minute of the registration time roll by he just grinned in relief.

While he looked through the exercises he had been given, he realized they had drastically dropped in difficulty towards the end. The last math problem involved the summation of 1+1 and the last english problem required you to sound out the letter A. He started laughing at the ridiculously easy questions.

He was still laughing with relief when he remembered what everyone had been saying. Platforms. He had never been asked about any platforms.

"Where can I choose my platform?" He asked.

"That option is not available to you as of yet." The voice replied.

"What do you mean?"

"First, Second, Third and Fourth graders only have access to the primary platform. It is designed to culture and nourish development as the child learns its independence through the completion of the different syllabi. The platform choice is granted when the child has proven that he or she…"

"Show me my syllabus standing."

Cur interrupted, he was experiencing a twinge of premonition. It was not good.

Cur dreaded what he was about to see, and rightfully so.

_This _is what he saw:

* * *

><p><strong>Name: Arcur Symphonius Manik<strong>

**Age: 16**

**Grade Level: 0**

**Grade Syllabus Completion: 0%**

**Syllabus Ranking: 822,763,822/822,763,822**

* * *

><p>Of all the children in the world, he was ranked dead last.<p>

It seems there are more than Cur's two problem categories in the world.

Some problems solve themselves, some problems have no solution and other problems… just bite you in the ass.


	4. Chapter 4: Storybook

Chapter 2: Storybook

Cur was momentarily stunned. He didn't really mind the rankings but… _last_?

He took a moment.

Then he remembered that it wouldn't affect his _real_ ranks in the least.

'_Well then… so _what_?'_

Disregarding the rank matter he looked back at his syllabus information.

* * *

><p><strong>Name: Arcur Symphonius Manik<strong>

**Age: 16**

**Grade Level: 0**

**Grade Syllabus Completion: 0%**

**Syllabus Ranking: 822,763,822/822,763,822**

* * *

><p>It showed no information on the 'non-discriminatory' avatar.<p>

"Show me my avatar."

* * *

><p><strong>Name: Anonymous<strong>

**Age: 20**

**Sex: Neutral**

**Level: 0**

**Credits: 0**

**Platform: Primary**

* * *

><p>The window reminded Cur of the 'platform' issue.<p>

"Show me my platform."

Cur did not know what the 'platform' was supposed to be, but seeing as how everyone had been talking about it he figured it must be important.

"You do not have enough credits to access the Primary platform. Please follow your syllabus and its assignments for the acquisition of credits. To do this…" The female's angelic voice replied.

The voice was still set to go at Mach-4 and Cur saw no reason to alter this, instead he cut her off before she began another of her habitual, and extensive, speeches.

"Well then, what _is _a platform?"

"A platform can be seen as a virtual world. An example of a platform is Royal Road. Unfortunately, before VRMOSS, Royal Road was the only platform. Now, the government has created numerous platforms for students to choose from."

Huge pictures of different sceneries appeared before him and came to focus as the voice mentioned each one.

"Each world is distinctively different in order to target your particular preferences. The available platforms include: Fairyland, the Holy Grail, Jungle Fever, H2O, Galaxy Wars, Echography, Draconia, Sub-Zero…"

"What about Royal Road?"

"Royal Road is not available as one of the starting platforms. If you so wish, you can transfer to Royal Road after you have cleared all platform restrictions."

"What are the platform restrictions?" Cur was getting increasingly annoyed with MOSS. First it had taken the freedom of his game play away and now it was trying to take his _game _away.

"As a primary platform member you will not be able to access any other platforms until you have completed the 4th grade syllabus. At that point you will be given the choice of the twelve available platforms. There is however a further restriction on platform transfers. Your avatar can only transfer to another platform after it has acquired at least 100 levels. This restriction has been created in order to prevent a system overload."

"What do you mean by 'at least 100 levels'?" He did not believe in the 'overload' crap, Royal Road had over four billion players and had never had a problem with that. Cur didn't believe that the _government _would.

"At the moment you will only be eligible to switch platforms at level 100. However you may choose to wait until you have reached level 105. If you then choose to switch platforms, you will only be eligible to switch platforms again at level 205. Finally, there is also a level and credit cost attached to a transfer."

By now Cur was sure he _hated_ the MOSS. Somehow it had gotten him stuck in the kiddie sandlot and _now _he wasn't even going to be able to access Royal Road until he had reached level 100.

He was incredibly annoyed.

MOSS was ruining everything and there was nothing he could do about it.

Resigning himself to the task ahead of him, he checked the time. It was still just a little after 9 a.m. in the real world. He figured he should start racking up his credits so he could finally see what the Primary platform had to offer. He wasn't happy succumbing to the MOSS, but he didn't see what other option he had.

-"Access Syllabus."

* * *

><p><strong>Name: Arcur Symphonius Manik<strong>

**Age: 16**

**Grade Level: 0**

**Grade Syllabus Completion: 0%**

**Syllabus Ranking: 822,763,822/822,763,822**

* * *

><p>-"Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Grade Level 0." He said in annoyance.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Grade Level 0<strong>

**Assignment Completion: 0%**

**Number of Assignments: 1**

**Grade 0 Ranking: 1/1**

* * *

><p>"Do you wish to proceed to your assignments?"<p>

"Yes."

* * *

><p><strong>Grade Level 0<strong>

**Assignment 1**

**Choose Proceed.**

**Proceed | Escape**

* * *

><p>-"..."<p>

"Proceed."

* * *

><p><strong>You have received 1 credit for Assignment Completion.<strong>

* * *

><p>"You have successfully completed Grade Level 0."<p>

* * *

><p><strong>You have received 1000 credits for Grade Level Completion.<strong>

**Grade Level 0**

**Assignment Completion: 100%**

**Number of Assignments: 1**

**Grade 0 Ranking: 1/1**

* * *

><p>"You are now in Grade Level 1."<p>

-"Wow, that was… easy."

Another window appeared before Cur.

* * *

><p><strong>Grade Level 1<strong>

**Assignment Completion: 0%**

**Number of Assignments: 500,000**

**Grade 1 Ranking: 60,263,251/60,263,251**

* * *

><p>Cur looked at the window incomprehensibly. It took him a second to notice something. He had been the only Grade Level 0 in the whole of Moss, and now he was in Grade Level 1... along with all other six or seven year olds in the world.<p>

The number of assignments was quite daunting compared to the measly one he had to complete for Grade 0. He thought about starting in on the Grade 1 assignments but instead decided to check out the Primary first since he now had 1001 credits to burn.

-"Access Primary Platform."

* * *

><p><strong>Name: Anonymous<strong>

**Age: 20**

**Sex: Neutral**

**Level: 0**

**Credits: 1001**

**Platform: Primary**

* * *

><p>"How do you wish to invest your credits?"<p>

"How _can_ I invest my credits?"

"You can exchange them for platform time with the exchange rate at one credit per minute. You can also exchange them for platform stat points with the exchange rate at one thousand credits per stat point."

Cur looked at his, apparently measly, 1001 credits and 'chose' to forego the stat point option for the moment. First though, he noted how useful that stat point trade could prove later on in the game when stat points became harder and harder to obtain.

Cur was already planning his gaming approach when he realized that he didn't even know yet if MOSS was going to be anything like Royal Road. For all he knew, the rules could be completely different.

Deciding to bite the bullet… finally, he commanded.

"I want to exchange all of my credits for platform time."

"Your exchange has granted you 16 hours and 41 minutes of game time. Do you wish to log in now?"

"Yes."

Immediately Cur felt his body being transported somewhere. He was caught off guard since Royal Road had never given him this rollercoaster sensation. Instead of the usual *FLASH* Cur's body was being displaced through a tunnel of light and darkness. It felt as if wind was tearing at his body. It was… surreal.

Suddenly the scenery changed and began fading into what looked like tree outlines. As they slowly materialized, he had time to adjust his sight. His body, that is… Anonymous's body, followed a few seconds later. Anon was thinking of how useful those few extra placement seconds would be. Instead of being thrown directly into the fire, he would have time to evaluate his surroundings.

Being used to Royal Road's 99% realism, he was immediately struck by how… _fake _everything looked. Though 'fake' was perhaps the wrong way of describing the cartoony look that things seemed to have. The trees had blob foliages instead of the individual leaves of 'real life', they looked like someone had taken a mushroom and colored it in 'tree colors'.

He saw a rabbit skittle by and it had overly big beady eyes as well as a big bushy cartoon tail. Looking around, the same proved to be true of everything. The clouds, the grass and even the butterflies.

It was strange, it wasn't exactly 100% 'cartoon' but it wasn't 100% reality either. It looked like someone had come in and just started to blur the edges of reality. The effect was quite strange. The colors were too vibrant and varied. Instead of the muted colors of reality, Anon felt like he was in a candy shop, and not in one of those bio shops either…. I'm talking massive food coloring here.

"Why does it look so weird in here?"

Anon was so perplexed that he didnt even notice when he voiced his thoughts out loud.

Angel (that is what I am calling the beautiful, lulling and angelic voice that always replies to Cur because it is getting annoying to talk about 'the voice' - so from now on think: angel = pretty system voice. Capiche?) took it as a question and answered.

"As a first grader your realism gradient has been reduced to 50%."

"... Why?"

"Recent developmental studies have shown that children raised with the access to virtual reality often tend to confuse virtual reality with real life in the future. In order to avoid the possible health and mental dangers that this might cause, VRMOSS provides a gradual integration to its nearly perfect virtual reality."

"What do you mean _gradual_ integration?"

"Your realism gradient will be raised with the completion of each level. Currently it is set at 50%. Level 2 gives you access to 60%. Level 3 gives you access to 70%. Level 4 gives you access to 80%. When you have graduated from the primary platform and are ready to transfer to other platforms, your reality gradient will be set at 99.999%."

Anon was getting tired and annoyed at all the restrictions that kept popping up.

"Is there anything _else _that is different in the primary? Anything you forgot to mention? _Anything_ I might need to know?"

Anon asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I do not appreciate your tone young man."

Angel replied in a slightly _less_ angelic voice. Anon was surprised that the system had even noted his sarcasm but decided to just play nice. No point in getting all hot headed because of a program… even if it _did_ tend to leave out some pertinent details.

"I apologize. Is there anything else I should be aware of concerning the primary platform?"

Anon asked, voice contrite. It was very convincing, the boy had practice with LD.

"Each grade level in the Primary Platform is assigned with an EXP bonus to offer younger children a better chance at competing fairly with other players. Grade Level One has a 10% bonus. Grade Level Two has an 8% bonus. Grade Level Three has a 6% bonus. Grade Level Four has a 4% bonus."

Anon who had been pretending to be _not _annoyed, actually became _less_ annoyed.

'Finally something _good_ about this stupid Primary situation!'

An excited grin spread over Anon's face. He was thinking about what he had to do before he could log back into Royal Road. Thinking back to what he had found out until now, he basically just needed to reach level 100 in the platform, and grade 4 in the syllabus. Seeing as he was in the platform, he chose to deal with the grade part of the plan later and concentrated on leveling up for now.

Having made up his mind, Anon decided to walk towards the village he saw in the distance. In his mind, village equaled people, people equaled information, information led to quests which resulted in EXP.

That _walk _part didn't happen though.

As soon as Anon took a step forward he felt a weight dragging him back and he ended up sprawled on the ground. He was confused, and at first thought he was under attack, but a survey of his surroundings showed that there was nothing in his vicinity that could have possibly attacked him.

Shaking his head in bafflement he began to get to his feet when he noticed his hands. It was the first time he had looked at them since he had entered the platform.

For a moment he thought they belonged to someone else, but then the shock that they were really _his_ settled in. The back of his hands was completely black and instead of _skin_ it seemed to be… something akin to leathery scales. The cartoony look was making the designs that crisscrossed over his skin more noticeable than they probably would in reality.

He inspected the rest of his hand and found sharp triangular fingernails that were attached to each of his four (yes, you read right) thick fingers. Anon took a moment to let it all settle, before perusing the rest of his body for anymore changes.

He found out the source of the mysterious pulling weight.

A tail.

It was quite a thick and long tail, with the same black leathery scaley look as his hands. The tip of his tail seemed to be made of stronger stuff as it was coated in what looked like scaley thorns.

Anon realized there was a much easier way to analyze the _whole_ situation.

"Show me my character."

A holographic picture appeared before him. To an outside observer it would have looked like he was looking into space, but he was taking in his avatar's appearance. His body looked pretty much like he had surmised it would. Black leathery skin covered every visible surface and the tail came out from behind him, with its end slightly coiling on the ground.

The real surprise was the look of his 'face'. It looked like a snake's head had morphed with a humans head. For starters he had no hair, or ears for that matter. His scalp was covered with the same black skin. His face was also completely… inhuman. He had no eyebrows and his huge eyes took up the whole upper third of his face. The nose on the other hand, was only noticeable as a slight protrusion that held two holes.

His mouth… was the freakiest thing he had ever seen. Closed it wasn't _that_ noticeable except for the pitch-black lips that stood out even from the rest of the blackness.

When he opened it however... You could see massive gleaming triangular teeth sticking out from his, very pink against the contrast, upper and lower gums. There were dozens of them that stood guard like a fence in his mouth. Looking at it he decided to… close his mouth.

"Character Information."

A window appeared and simultaneously, Angel began speaking.

* * *

><p><strong>Character Name | Anonymous | Alignment | Neutral<strong>

**Level | 0 | Profession | N/A**

**Health | 100 | Mana | 100**

**Total EXP | 0 | EXP to Level Up | 1**

**Title | N/A | Fame | 0**

**Strength | 7 | Agility | 13**

**Vitality | 8 | Wisdom | 14**

**Intellect | 11 | Luck | 0**

**Dexterity | 9 | Leadership | 0**

**Attack | 1 | Defense | 0**

* * *

><p>"Long ago the Draconian Empire erected itself from darkness and ash. It defeated its stronger foes in a battle of wits and subversion. The unearthly heat that overwhelms their Empire proved to be their making and their foe's undoing.<p>

You are a Dracon, a descendant of this great Empire. Known for their reptilian senses and predatory instincts the Dracons make worthy adversaries. What they lack in strength they make up for in speed and stealth.

Flame-born and blessed, Dracons are usually seen as demonic cold blooded creatures. This could not be any further from the truth as risen Dracon War Lord Kah-riel has forever placed his blessing upon his kin. The Dracon race remains a mystery to most as they do not like to venture from their home, Draconia, they find strength in numbers."

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><p><strong><span>Racial Features:<span>**

**Every race has it's own advantages and disadvantages. Dracons are known for their canny reptilian instincts that give them an edge on stealth. Their cold blood often helps them conceal their presence from others, but also creates a weakness to cold climates.**

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><p><strong><span>Beast Awareness:<span>**

**Unknown and hostile presences will be cast with a red hue. You will become aware of them when they are close enough. Unfortunately naked ladies don't count as beasts. Not advisable to use skill for replacing torches in dark areas.**

**- Gives you an extra awareness that allows you to perceive near presences.**

**- Radius of effectiveness rises with skill level. (Currently 25m)**

**- At higher levels, you'll be able to obtain more information about those presences. (Like Name, Level, Weaknesses...)**

**- Cost: 40 Mana.**

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><p><strong><span>Night Vision:<span>**

**The ability to see in the dark will help you overcome difficult situations, it will also help you in your nightly pursuits… (If you catch my drift…a midnight cup of tea obviously…)**

**- Allows you to see in the dark.**

**- Perceivable Distance will increase with skill. (Currently: 25m)**

**- Mana Cost will decrease with skill. (Currently: 10MP/min).**

**- Permanently elevates your Wisdom stats by 2. (+2 WIS)**

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><p><strong><span>Dexterity:<span>**

**A soldier must have dexterity to handle his weapons properly.**

**- Reduces crafting time by 1%(+1% every 40 stat points)**

**- Reduces Chances of inflicting a Critical Hit by 1%(+1% every 50 stat points)**

**- Increases proficiency with dual-wielding light blades. (+1 every 50 stat points)**

**The Cold:**

**- Dracons lose 20% of their agility when the temperature goes below 10C. (40% for any temperature below 0ºC.)**

**- At temperatures of below 10C, actions will require 50% more stamina than normal.**

**- Cold temperatures (below 15ºC) will make you susceptible to illness. The colder it is the likelier the chance of you getting sick.**

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><p>After going over his racial features, Anon decided he was quite happy with his character. He figured it could have been a lot worse, and he thanked MOSS for not coupling him with a strength based avatar. He had never been the warrior type, preferring to do damage from the sidelines and avoid being killed. In fact, he didn't know how he, himself, could have chosen a <em>better <em>character for his playing style.

The only thing that bothered him a bit was the tail, the very _heavy _tail. It felt very much like he had a third leg… that couldn't walk. The tail was messing up his balance completely and he kept having to lean forwards to prevent himself from falling on his butt, well… tail.

Walking towards the village required a lot of concentration on his part. From a spectator's point of view it looked like he was leaning towards an imaginary wind. From Anon's point of view it was very much like he was learning how to walk again.

He wabbled this way and that trying to keep a straight course. His tail wasn't cooperating though and kept swaying in one direction or the other. He fell a couple of times and 'a couple' might be an understatement, especially considering he hadn't even reached the village half an hour later. He was completely exhausted.

Fortunately, Anon came across a well and headed towards it. His beginning inventory held a flask, but it had no water in it, and by now he was completely parched from his tail battle. After filling up his flask, and downing it, a couple of times, he felt much better. Anon decided to take a break from his tail fight and sat down on the side of the well.

Sitting, he noticed something for the first time. Although he had been fighting his tail the whole walk over, he had been seeing it as something separate from his body - like a useless appendage or something. By _sitting_ on his tail though, he realized he could _feel_ with it. Immediately, he decided to test this hypothesis by throwing his tail into the well behind him. He was right. It felt cold… and wet.

A grin spread over his face as he stood up and pushed himself away from the well. Anon figured that if he could feel with his tail he could probably move it as well. He tried moving without dragging it around like he had been doing this far.

Nothing happened.

He tried again, but still… nothing. Not having a tail in real life he didn't even know how to use his tail muscles, much less 'find' them in his mind. He kept trying, but still nothing. After another five minutes of futile attempts he was starting to get frustrated.

Anon swung his body from one side to the other, forcefully swinging his tail with momentum. Although he wasn't really moving the tail per se, he felt better. Releasing his frustration on the stupid tail he kept swinging his body left and right until the tail would flop from one side to the other.

Sometimes the weight of the thing would catch him off guard, again, and he ended up stumbling to the ground. This only made him even more determined, making him jump right up and continue moving his tail with even more energy.

He was slowly getting used to the damn thing and could eventually keep the tail up, swinging from side to side, without letting it drop. His hips and arms, which he was using to keep his balance and add force to the swing, were getting really tired from the constant motion. The tail though, was a blur that swung at an, almost, parallel line to the ground.

The sight made Anon let out a slightly manic laugh. Sweat was pouring down his neck and he was starting to feel muscles he didn't even know he had. He hadn't fallen for quite some time when a lapse of attention made him stumble forward from the momentum force of his tail. Before he could fall to the ground, like he had been doing for the past half hour, he shifted his foot and caught his balance, preventing the fall.

The manic laugh lost its slightness. Somehow Anon took that as a small victory, which it was when a window popped up.

* * *

><p><strong>You have acquired a new stat: Acrobatics.<strong>

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><p><strong>You have gained +1ACR.<strong>

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><p><strong><span>Acrobatics:<span>**

**A soldier must know how to walk a tightrope in case he ever has to join the circus.**

**- Increases agility by 1% (+1% every 50 stats)**

**- Gives you better control over your center of gravity, increasing your balance.**

**- Allows you to perform acrobatic maneuvers with more ease.**

**- Falling damages reduced by 10%.**

**- Increases your evasion rate.**

**- Stats cannot be assigned to this and will be determined by player's actions.**

* * *

><p>Anon was a bit surprised, he had expected to receive a 'tail command' skill or something, but instead he had gained 'acrobatics' of all things. He wanted to feel annoyed, but figured that the stat could be useful for his intended class in the long run.<p>

The tail whipping had tired him though and he decided to take a break by the well again. As he walked back to the well, he immediately noticed the effects of the Acrobatic stat. The tail's presence felt a little more natural now, and he no longer had to remind himself to shift his body weight forwards. He felt as if he had learned how to walk in a minute instead of the, what is it, eight months it usually takes.

Refilling his flask a couple of times, he satiated his thirst. Sitting on the side of the well once more he tried to figure out what to do about the tail situation. He would never make it to the village in the state that he was in, his tail would kill him before he got there.

He could easily imagine himself dragging his tail along with him, eventually tripping on it, rolling down a hill, gaining momentum, only to crack his head open on a rock somewhere.

Anon pondered at this while he took a minute to eat one of the ten barley breads in his inventory. He was a little annoyed that he was back to eating this dried out piece of 'thing' they called food. Anon was reminiscing his Royal Road character that he was apparently never going to see again, a character that hadn't eaten _barley bread _in years. Why did all games need to make the starting situation miserable? Why hadn't they given him anything useful? A sword would have helped, or even a tail manual, but _nooooo_…. it was barley bread and an empty flask.

Contemplating his situation, Anon unknowingly voiced his thoughts.

"What am I supposed to do?"

Angel promptly(x4) replied.

"You have successfully opened Storybook."

'_What?'_

"Once upon a time a young maiden was playing with her best friend, when she accidentally dropped her most prized possession into the well. She is frantic with distress. Her best friend tried to rescue the stolen item, but unfortunately has not resurfaced ever since. Will you not try and help this fair maiden?"

Anon was confused as to what was happening. It seemed like Angel had just given him a quest, but he had never received a quest from the system itself before, excepting of course the tutorial that no one completes. Checking his Quests folder he saw that its five slots were still empty.

He was about to ask Angel what she meant when he noticed a giant flashing red arrow before him. It was pointing to the right. Anon turned his head in that direction and it stopped flashing. A girl was leaning on the far side of the well with a pre-occupied look on her face. She was staring intently into the water and did not seem to notice that Anonymous was looking directly at her.

'_Well… how many worried girls could be meandering around this well? That must be her...'_

Before Anon approached her, he surveyed the well thoroughly. He had been there for almost an hour and had only _now _noticed the girl. Remembering his racial features, he decided to activate the Beast Awareness skill. Mostly, he was worried about who could have seen him swinging his tail back and forth like a fool.

The first try failed.

The second one didn't.

* * *

><p><strong>Survey Results:<strong>

**Number of Presences: 1**

**Number of Hostiles: 0**

**Presence Descriptions:**

**- Race: Human**

**- Gender: Female**

**- Affiliation:?**

**- Level:?**

**Your skill is too weak for any further information.**

* * *

><p>He walked up to the girl and cleared his throat.<p>

She didn't budge.

Anon cleared his throat again.

Suddenly the girl swiveled her head in Anon's direction. She was a beautiful girl with black-purplish hair that framed her face and fell down to her mid-back. Her eyes were an unnaturally vibrant green, lest we forget that the reality gradient is still at 50%.

She was pretty and all, and would have been quite charming if it wasn't the death glare she was directing at Anonymous.

"What do _you _want!?"

She sneered.

"_Excuse _me!?"

Anonymous was both surprised and a little annoyed at the girl. He did not understand little kids at all. He had never done anything to her, he had barely just met her and her eyes were _already _shooting daggers at him.

The only child he could tolerate was cute Tui, his sister. He had actually been quite relieved when MOSS had announced that all characters would be given a mature appearance of 20. He wouldn't have to put up with seeing kids all over the place… even though he knew their appearance didn't make them any less 'kiddy'.

'_I guess that 20 thing doesn't apply to NPCs.'_

The girl pouted but didn't answer.

"I'm sorry little girl but what did I ever do to you?"

"I'm _not _a little girl! And I don't have to talk to _weirdos_!"

She looked like a 'little girl' to him but he wasn't going to comment on it, he saw no reason to fight with a NPC. Then again... she had called him a _weirdo_.

"How am _I_ a weirdo. You just met me. Actually, we haven't even officially 'met' yet. My name is Anonymous what is yours?"

Her scowl deepened but she answered.

"My name is Priscilla, not that it's any of _your_ business! I usually don't talk to people who randomly wag their tails around in public for an hour."

'_Ohhh shit.'_

Anon couldn't help but be embarrassed that someone had seen his foolishness and a blush quickly crept over his face. Luckily it did not show under the midnight skin.

"... Right. … Well- ahmm. Anyways! I came over to ask you about your friend. Is he alright?"

Immediately her face changed from indignation to worry. She directed her gaze at the well once more and looked sadly into its depths, trying to catch a glimpse of what lay underneath.

"H-how d-did you know about that?... Well, no matter."

Priscilla did not give him the chance to respond.

"Todd went down over twenty minutes ago, but has still not come back. I don't know how to swim and I don't know what to do. I don't want to leave Todd here alone while I…"

She quickly directed her green and hopeful eyes at him. The effect was only magnified by the teary pool that surrounded them.

Though her eyes spoke volumes she didn't word her question so Anon asked.

"I am guessing you want me to dive in there and get your friend back?"

She gave him a curt nod.

"Well, you see. It's not that I don't _want _to, but what is in it for me? I don't even know your friend… or _you _for that matter."

Her indignant attitude came back in a flash.

"H-How could you not help a damsel in distress! And you call yourself a gentleman!?"

"I _don't_." he mumbled.

The girl's eyes widened in shock.

* * *

><p><strong>Your infamy has risen by 1.<strong>

* * *

><p>'<em>W-what!? Because I wanted to know what I would get as a reward?! That's ridiculous!'<em>

Priscilla had petulantly crossed her arms and was now impatiently tapping her feet on the cobbled ground that surrounded the well.

Anon was feeling the urge to do the same.

He was extremely annoyed that his infamy had gone up, seeing as he had no fame he was now officially 'infamous'...because he had questioned a little girl.

He decided not to say anything further in case the system decided he was being… _ungentlemanly_. Priscilla did the same and the two stood about one meter apart silently staring at each other.

Priscilla cracked first.

She threw her hands up in the air, while screaming.

"Fine!"

Anon raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

Priscilla straightened her stance and held her clenched fists at the end of her down stretched arms.

"Fine! I will make sure that daddy gives you something nice."

"Your daddy?"

Anon couldn't help keeping the sarcasm out of his voice.

Once again Priscilla assumed her self righteous crossed arm position and an arrogant attitude commanded her voice.

"Yes. My _daddy._ Or do you not want to meet the _King_ of Elentary?"

Knowing the fact that her father was a king, and she a princess, had surprised him, she smirked.

Anon replied with a frown, he didn't appreciate being made fun of by a snobby little girl. Even if she was a princess. He decided to ignore her snide remark and concentrate on the quest. After all, now that a _king _was involved, the rewards were bound to be worthwhile.

"Alright. I will go find your _Tadeus_," he said.

Giving her his back while he walked towards the well, he ignored her exasperated shout.

"It's _Todd_!"

Anon ignored her.

'_He who laughs last, laughs longest.'_


End file.
